This movie provides good examples of nonverbal communication with facial expressions and hand gestures. It also provides good examples of the stages of relational development in Ben’s relationships with his team members, especially between Jill Taylor and Professor Rosa. Now let’s take a deeper look at both communication elements. The first time the element of facial expressions and gestures came around was when the team taught Ben emblems that they use to communicate and what each emblem meant. Emblems are substitutes for words; they are body movements that have specific verbal translations. DeVito, 2009) Folded arms behind the back meant “the table is hot”, a touch to the eye meant “we need to talk”, a hand to the forehead meant “the deck is cooling” and a hand waved through hair meant “get out NOW! ” Once Ben learned all the signs and code words he was ready to take what he learned to Vegas. This is where these gestures came into play; Ben would walk into the Blackjack area, give eye contact to one of his team members already sitting at the table while he or she puts his or her arms behind the back to inform Ben the Table was hot.
Ben would then sit down at that table and the team member would use one of the code words in a sentence to specify the card count. Keeping count, Ben kept winning and winning but when his team member put his or her hand to the forehead Ben would leave the table knowing that the deck was cooling down. The other gestures don’t come about until later in the movie when Ben starts losing his head and starts losing a lot of money. Ben ignores the deck is cooling sign and when Jill used the sign for we need to talk he completely ignored that too.
The Essay on Effectiveness: Communication and Team Members
Aims / details: The primary purpose of the report is for you to work with three other people and undertake a study of an organization – the steps for establishing team performance plans, the development and facilitation of team cohesion, the facilitation of teamwork and, liaising with stakeholders. Reviewing the effectiveness of teams within an organization is imperative so that opportunities for ...
Then Jill puts her hand through her hair to warn Ben the security enforcer was on his tail, which let him know to get out of there quick. This movie teaches that using hand gestures and facial expressions are a good way of communicating between people without others knowing what is being said, or even being totally oblivious anything is being said at all. It worked very well for awhile until the security enforcer started watching the team’s gestures on video and started recognizing that they were working together.
This is also a good example of how using non verbal gestures for secret code can backfire because after awhile someone is bound to notice the gestures and become suspicious, especially if it’s being done repeatedly. The second communications element displayed in this movie are the stages of relational development. There are six stages of relation development which include contact, involvement, intimacy, deterioration, repair and dissolution (DeVito, 2009).
Ben goes through these stages with both Jill and Professor Rosa who became his closest relationships throughout the movie.
The contact stage between Ben and Jill came about before he was even introduced to the group. He has already noticed her on campus but gets the impression from his friends that she is out of his league. In the first scene where they interact she waves toward someone close to Ben as Ben waves back. Although she did not actually wave to him, by him waving back he got her to notice him. She then goes to him after he denied the offer to join the group where she flirted with him and talks him into joining the group.
These are good examples of the contact stage because the contact stage is the stage of first impressions and the stage at which someone begins flirting with potential romantic partners, (DeVito, 2009) and I think these first scenes presented both first impressions and flirting between the two of them. As they both go on trips to Vegas and count cards together they become more connected and romantically interested in each other and they begin to share personal stories about one another. Here they begin the involvement stage.
The Term Paper on Understanding Relationships
The way we build relationships with children and young people changes according to the age and stage of their development. Responding to a 14-year-old in the same way as a 3-year-old is obviously not going to work. Reassurance and approval are important as children are beginning to develop an awareness of themselves, and it is important that their self-concept is a positive one. Play workers give ...
They began to test each other to see what the other feels about the relationship. Ben tries to kiss Jill on the subway but Jill backs off but later on after they won a bunch of money she invites him back to her suite. Now begins the intimacy stage where Ben and Jill committed themselves further to establish a relationship where they become lovers. (DeVito, 2009) The deterioration stage comes about with both Ben and Jill, and Ben and Rosa at the same time when Ben loses his cool at the black jack table and loses $200,000.
This brings on an argument between Ben and Rosa where Rosa leaves the group in Vegas and goes back to Boston to take Ben’s money. Jill also starts to notice Ben is starting to become corrupt and greedy which begins to weaken their bond together. Both relationships became weakened because of intrapersonal dissatisfaction; Rosa was very dissatisfied with how Ben lost all the money and began to see the future with him more negatively. (DeVito, 2009) Jill was also dissatisfied with Ben of how he became corrupt and greedy.
After Ben talked the group into staying the weekend to play without Rosa the casino security enforcer Cole beat him up and told him to never come back. When he went back to Boston he went to Jill and explained what he did was wrong and asked for forgiveness. This is now the repair stage. After Jill forgives Ben they both devised a plan to set up Professor Rosa because Rosa stole Ben’s money and Cole wanted Ben to bring Rosa to him.
The repair stage between Ben and Rosa was more of a ploy on Ben’s part because he was not genuinely trying to repair their relationship but rather he was setting him up. As Ben approached Rosa at a formal party he apologized and talked him into coming back to play for a huge sum of money. So the dissolution stage came about between Ben and Rosa because the bond between the two of them became broken (DeVito, 2009) after Rosa realized he was set up and they never talked again. This movie has showed the stages of relational development very well in my opinion.
Much of Ben relationships went through almost every stage and I think we can learn that all relationships may pose problems but not every relationship can be repaired because some relationships suffer so much damage that repair never happens. In conclusion, the movie 21 demonstrates nonverbal communication in that Ben and his team learned and displayed how to use facial expressions and hand gestures to cheat many casinos by counting cards. Although these tactics proved to be profitable in the beginning it ended up being their demise because they got too greedy and got caught.
The Essay on Intimacy Relationship Sister Stage
Intimacy Intimacy is often defined as arising from a close acquaintance, association, or familiarity. This definition would definitely describe the relationship I have with my sister, Catherine. We share just about everything that goes on in our lives and know each other like the back of our hands. Weare so close, in fact, that rarely do we hear what another is feeling before we already know. We ...
This shows that using code and signs may seem like no one knows what’s going on but you never really know if someone’s watching and what that someone is capable of. I also think this movie displays the stage of relational development very well with both relationships between Ben and Jill, and Ben and Rosa. Both relationships had close to all the stages with the exception of dissolution with Ben and Jill. These relationships shows that every relationship one person has are different. Conflicts arise from some people that are salvageable but others not so much.
It all depends on a person’s personality and how they react to conflict, as well as how bad the conflict may be. All in all I think this movie displayed many forms of communication besides just the elements I have listed. It was very entertaining to see these communications at work and to see what consequences came from them in the end. References DeVito, J. A. (2009).
The interpersonal communication book (12th Ed. ).
Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Luketic, R. (Director).
(2008) 21 [Motion Picture], United States: Columbia Pictures.